But the days lengthened into weeks, and the soldiers were gradually
becoming worn out by the perpetual strain imposed upon them. There was one
chance left, and one alone, which was to cut their way out through the
besieging lines. Massacre to a man was their fate in any case, and thus it
was that the commander, whose name has not come down to us, mustered his
men for the last supreme effort. At dead of night the garrison, having
destroyed as far as possible all that might be of use to the enemy, sallied
out to their doom. They fought as men fight who know that the end has come;
but valour could not avail against the numbers arrayed on the side of the
enemy, and they were wiped off the face of the earth. The tribes looted the
castle of everything portable, and then retired from whence they had come.
For this Kheyr-ed-Din cared nothing; they were welcome to the poor
possessions of some hundreds of half-starved Italian soldiers--let them
take the shell, for him remained the kernel in the shape of a strong place
of arms.
Hardly, however, had the brothers succeeded in this enterprise when that
tireless fighter Uruj again attempted the capture of Bougie; but his second
attempt was even more disastrous than his first, and he lost half his
flotilla. Then he asked for succour from Tunis; but the Sultan, much
offended at the idea of the brothers setting up in a piratical business in
which he was no longer a sleeping partner, angrily refused.
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